Knutton v. Cofield’s Empirical Analysis
1968
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 168 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 181 later decisions — most recently January 2026 · most notably Quick v. Quick (1982), Coble v. Coble (1980)
2 federal appellate · 168 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Sun Printing Publishing Association v. William L Moore · United States v. Bethlehem Steel Co. · Kothe v. R. C. Taylor Trust · Wise v. United States · Linkous v. Millner
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 181 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) where the damages which the parties might reasonably anticipate are difficult to ascertain because of their indefiniteness or uncertainty and (2) where the amount stipulated is either a reasonable estimate of the damages which would probably be caused by a breach or (emphasis original) is reasonably proportionate to the damages which have been actually caused by the breach. Knutton v. Cofield, 273 N.C. 355, 361 , 160 S.E.2d 29 (1968).”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“'If different inferences may be drawn from the evidence, the trial judge determines which inferences shall be drawn and which shall be rejected.'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“[a] penalty is a sum which a party similarly agrees to pay or forfeit . . . as a punishment, the threat of which is designed to prevent the breach, or as security . . . to insure that the person injured shall collect his actual damages”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.